2017 Movies

By: Drew Johnson Jon Jee Staff Published: January 13, 2017 9:00 AM

As we start our new year new movie trailers are released every day. From horror movies to classic remakes 2017 is a year packed with lots of popcorn and 3D glasses.

One of the most anticipated movies of the year is Star Wars: Episode VIII. The eighth movie in the series continues Rey’s epic journey with Finn, Poe and Luke Skywalker. There has been a lot of speculation about Carrie Fisher’s role as General Leia Organa, but it has been confirmed that her filming was already complete at the time of her unexpected death.

A film safe for the kids that is coming to theaters is Cars 3. This movie showcases an old Lightning McQueen as he tries to get back into the world of racing. In order to get back in the game he gains help from a young race technician, he must prove that #95 is not yet retired on Piston Cup Racing's biggest stage. The animated movie is written by Pixar and directed by Brian Fee. Cast and crew includes Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen and Larry the Cable Guy as Mater.

Another highly anticipated films of 2017 is the remake of Beauty and the Beast. A young prince, imprisoned as a beast, can be freed only by true love. His only opportunity arrives when he meets Belle, played by Emma Watson (Hermione in the Harry Potter series). Disney's animated masterpiece takes on a new form, with remarkable special effects and an all star cast including Josh Gad (Olaf in Frozen) as Le Fou, Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey) as the Beast, Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings series) as Cogsworth, Emma Thompson (P. L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks) as Mrs. Potts among many others. The film is directed by Bill Condon and is set to release in March.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is set to release in May of 2017. The fifth installment of the Pirates series brings back Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow and Orlando Bloom as Will Turner. In this film, Jack Sparrow sets off to find the trident that belongs to Poseidon. Many are excited to see Depp return to the roll of Sparrow with the release of the film, following a six year break between releases.

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Chris Pratt returns to the movie screen as Peter Quill/Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. Since the release of the first movie in 2014, the second installment is sure to be successful. With the return of Pratt, also comes the return of other cast members, Karen Gillan (Evie in The Big Short) as Nebula, Zoe Saldana (Uhura in the Star Trek series) as Gamora and Bradley Cooper (Pat in The Silver Linings Playbook) as the voice for Rocket the Raccoon. The movie will continue with the team searching for Peter Quill’s parents.

While there is a lot of expectation for films being released this year, it will be hard for 2017 to compare to the accolades received from many of the films released in 2016. Most noteworthy is La La Land written and directed by Damien Chazelle and featuring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. La La Land follows the lives of a jazz artist and actress in Los Angeles and was very well received, winning more Golden Globes than any other film of all time. Chazelle’s film won Best Original Score, Best Screenplay of a Motion Picture, Best Director of a Motion Picture, Best Musical or Comedy Motion Picture, while Stone took home Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Motion Picture and Gosling scored Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy Motion Picture.

Other notable films that released in 2016 included Star Wars Rogue One, an adaptation of August Wilson’s play Fences starring Viola Davis and Denzel Washington, Hidden Figures, highlighting the work of African-American women who worked for NASA making countless space missions possible and a continuation of the Captain America films, Civil War starring Chris Evans as Captain America and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man where the Avengers are divided and fighting each other.

By the looks of it, 2017 is going to produce some record breaking films and numbers at the box office and at this point, all bets are off for who will clean house at the award shows next year.